Philanthropy & Funding
What’s Wrong With Dirty Money?
Nonprofits need to go into relationships with donors with their eyes wide open and dispassionately weigh the risks and rewards of the exchange.
Eric Nee
Content by Eric Nee. More information about the author is available at the base of any article listed below.
Collaboration
Collective Impact 2.0
Authors of a seminal article on collective impact explore what it means to put equity at the center of the practice and how that changes the collective impact process itself.
Collaboration
The Mother of Invention
Nonprofits, governments, and businesses around the world have changed how they operate to overcome the impact of COVID-19. The social sector should continue to build on that creativity in the wake of the pandemic.
Leadership
Building Better Boards
Looking at a board through the lens of colonization can increase its effectiveness and improve board culture.
Philanthropy & Funding
The Urban and Rural Divide
Despite the poverty rate being significantly higher in rural America, philanthropists continue to pour money into urban areas.
Human Rights
The Union Makes Us Strong
One of the important ways to improve the lives of ordinary Americans is to empower workers and encourage the growth of unions.
Business
B Corps Grow Up
Until recently, most of the 3,422 companies (in 71 countries) that have become a B Corp have been small and medium-sized, but a growing number of large, established corporations are starting to undergo the certification process as well.
Leadership
Leading During and After a Crisis
Our mission is to find and publish articles by leading thinkers and doers that provide insight on important issues and challenges that social sector leaders must deal with continually. As it turns out, some of these eternal topics are essential now. The Editor's Note from the Summer 2020 issue.
Health
Adapting to the New Coronavirus
How the social sector and Stanford Social Innovation Review are responding now and preparing for what comes next. Part of the series Rethinking Social Change in the Face of Coronavirus.
Government
Don’t Forget the Public Sector
Social innovation leaders should reconsider partnering with the public sector, which has many more resources and much more power than the nonprofit sector, and more of a mandate to address social problems than does business.
Collaboration
Beyond Collective Impact
Rather than a model with a fixed approach, as collective impact is, the community system solutions framework can be adapted to different types of situations. The Editor's Note from the Winter 2020 issue.
Social Enterprise
Money for Mission
An earned-income business model can tempt nonprofits to pursue the wrong revenue opportunities but they can also be a more reliable income stream than grants or gifts. An Editor's Note from the Fall 2019 issue.
Government
Three Cheers for Regulation
During the Industrial Revolution, labor organizations, social movements, the media, and government came together to rein in big business, providing lessons on how to regulate firms of today like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, writes SSIR's editor-in-chief in an introduction to the Summer 2019 issue.
Business
Living on the Edge
It’s time for socially responsible business leaders to pay higher wages and offer better benefits.
Philanthropy & Funding
Whither Big Philanthropy
A growing chorus of critics are questioning whether big philanthropy is actually a good thing.
Civic Engagement
De Tocqueville Redux
As America undergoes dramatic upheavals, one of the ways to understand these changes and to come up with solutions is to examine them through the lens of civil society.
Environment
Diversifying the Conservation Movement
The conservation movement has been criticized for being too homogenous, but the National Audubon Society is taking steps to change that.
Business
Why Business May Lead Social Innovation in China
Social innovation will take different forms in different countries. In China, businesses are likely to take the lead.
Human Rights
The Legacy of White Supremacy
America’s first memorial honoring African-Americans who have been lynched opened in Montgomery, Alabama.
Organizational Development
SSIR’s 15th Anniversary
Since 2003, Stanford Social Innovation Review has provided a forum for social-change leaders to share new ideas and best practices, and learn from one another.
Civic Engagement
Year of the Woman
From the Women’s March to #MeToo, women have risen up to change politics and society.
Philanthropy & Funding
Investing in Our Future
Philanthropists and other impact investors play a critical role in funding risky, early-stage startups developing science-based solutions to climate change.
Philanthropy & Funding
Globalizing Philanthropy
At a time of rising nationalism and cutbacks in foreign aid in countries around the world, philanthropists play a critical role, not just in providing money, but in fostering cooperation and goodwill between people and nations.
Foundations
Putting Community First
Community foundations should reaffirm their unique role in the philanthropic landscape and focus on the needs of their geographic community.
Economic Development
Puerto Rico in Peril
Puerto Rico has effectively declared bankruptcy, putting government programs and social progress at risk.
Civic Engagement
Protecting Our Civil Liberties
The ACLU spent the last decade strengthening its state affiliates, just in time to battle the Trump Administration’s reactionary policies.
Environment
Water is Life
Native American activists in North Dakota build broad support to protect sacred lands from environmental degradation.
Design Thinking
Thumbs Up for Science
The social sector needs to take greater advantage of the behavioral sciences when developing programs and services.
Technology
Internet on a Bike
Google and Tata Trusts partner to bring the Internet to women in rural India.
Organizational Development
Marketing Über Alles
Too many nonprofits develop products and services without paying enough attention to their customers (the beneficiaries).
Cities
Farming in Detroit
The number of urban gardens in Detroit has been increasing as people seek to put abandoned land to better use.
Organizational Development
Mastering Innovation
Innovation is an important tool to create social change, one that can be learned and mastered.
Last Look
Cultivating Coffee Co-ops
Many of the more than 355,000 smallholder coffee farmers in Rwanda are members of producer co-ops.
Organizational Development
Change Is Good
Nonprofit organizations and social businesses must adapt to technological changes to survive.
Environment
Lion of the Seas
Marine reserves that cut across national borders in Africa are protecting underwater life.
Collaboration
Grassroots Change
To create long-lasting social change, organizations and programs must become embedded in the local community.
Social Services
Lost to Foreclosure
One of the cities hit hardest by the wave of home foreclosures was Stockton, Calif., a city that later declared bankruptcy.
Philanthropy & Funding
Show Me the Money
It’s time for more foundations and philanthropists to make $10 million plus grants to social change organizations.